Russia’s state-owned oil and gas major Gazprom plans to construct an oil pipeline linking Romanian Black Sea port of Konstanta to a refinery near Pancevo, Serbia, controlled by Gazprom majority-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS). Gazprom will work on the pipeline together with Romanian state-owned oil and oil derivatives system operator Conpet.

“This year we had more meetings on this issue, the last time we met with people from Gazprom in July”, Liviu ILAS, general manager of Conpet said, as quoted by Romanian business daily Ziarul Financiar. A feasibility study is expected to kick off soon.

According to Mr. Ilas, the project is “basically an extension of the existing pipeline from Constanta to Pitesti, with a new 320 km pipe reaching NIS refinery in Pancevo, Serbia. 280 km of the newly constructed pipeline would be in Romania. The value of the investment will most likely exceed EUR 200 million, Mr. Ilas said.